Scrappy East Atlanta venue shuts its doors for now

ISP, Aug. 16 -- it's Elvis' death day, but you wouldn't know it at ISP. Here, the focus is strictly on a night of new, independent music. Even though the scrappy little 10-month-old venue on busy Flat Shoals Avenue has only a couple of weeks to live, it's a distant concern.
 The bill features an impressive slate of tight, 30-minute sets from the Orphins, the Moorish Idols, Knoxville's Royal Bangs and Atlanta/New York hybrid Porcelain Bunny. It's the model ISP event. The crowd is a shape-shifting mix of sophisticated listeners, friends and associates of the bands. A fair amount of foot traffic roams to and from the Earl, the internationally known haven of music, food and drinks located next door.

By 1:30 a.m. the show is over, and musician and co-founder Justin Sias is exhausted. He's been working sound, coordinating bands, manning the door and generally keeping a semblance of order in the laid-back operation. "I need to take a break," he says, sitting down for the first time in hours.

The break means the end of ISP, at least for now. Sias and creative partner Eric Holder, both members of the band Elevado, announced the closing a few weeks ago in modest fashion, with an announcement placed at the bottom of an e-mail promoting their upcoming gigs. The venue's unassuming lack of publicity is ironic, because ISP actually stands for Industrial Strength Promo, named for Holder's public-relations business. The paradox isn't lost on Sias. "Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?" he says, before pointing out that the small room was initially opened to be an incubator rather than an operable club. "The problem – which isn't really a problem – is this: ISP has gotten more popular than we can handle.

"At the end of the day, this was just supposed to be a practice space," he continues. The practices were often halted by curious passers-by stopping to peek in on the party atmosphere. "See, Elevado just wanted to practice in East Atlanta, to get the whole culture of this area, and then we could go hang out at the Earl. That was all we wanted."

After a few successful rent parties, the space became a launching pad for Sias' and Holder's fertile ideas, including a record label and promo office. These days, former Athenian Holder takes a decidedly behind-the-scenes presence with ISP, working from his own office to increase exposure for the Other Sound Festival and a host of like-minded bands. Meanwhile, the collective he co-founded thrives without much advertising.

"With the intercommunication between the bands that play here, everyone seems to get the memo of what's going on," Sias says, "And they tell their friends." Yet ISP's steady roster of indie shows was never a real threat to business at the neighboring venue, he adds.

"We must have brought them more business than anyone else in town," he explains, nodding toward the front patio of the Earl. "Nearly everyone who comes here who hasn't eaten ends up eating there." Or drinking there, since ISP has no liquor license.

The lack of liquor sales has financially drained the decidedly nonprofit ISP. "If we were to try to make this a cash cow, we could make a lot of money here. If we were charging $6 a drink, we'd be bankin' it. But that's not what we wanted, and that opens so many doors that we just aren't ready for at the moment." For now, he says, Elevado will step up touring and recording plans with an eye toward turning ISP into a full-on club at some point in the future. "Check back in a year and we'll see, but for now the only way to move forward is to stop."

And Sias is content with that, for now. "A chapter is about to close, but it's nowhere near the end of the book."
Lee Valentine Smith
Creative Loafing
08/29/2007

Industrial Strength Promotions has unsealed an all-purpose venue next to the Earl in East Atlanta.

ISP featured in Stomp and Stammer Magazine

Hoping to add a spirit of community to Atlanta’s independent music scene, Industrial Strength Promotions has unsealed an all-purpose venue next to the Earl in East Atlanta. The facility official opened its doors with a special Halloween show last year. Inspired by the DIY ethic of SubPop, Merge and Dischord, IPS is at once a recording facility, a promotions house, performance space, storefront and art gallery.

The Industrial Strength Promotions brand originated in Athens in 1997 when Eric Holder, Matt McFerron and Steve Barry began experimenting with ways to promote Holder and McFerron’s combo, Urban Henry. ISP quickly mutated to include other bands and musicians working together to book and promote shows. Working together worked. Eventually Holder and company’s efforts culminated with co-founding the Athens Music Festival and a partnership with Tokyo’s Inter FM. Holder left the “ISP compound” in 2001 to pursue the greener pastures of radio and television PR, not to mention a graduate degree. Unable to shake the parasite that is “the music bug,” Holder is not revisiting the idea of an artists’ collective.

isp_group_photo.jpg

In its more modern incarnation, ISP’s goal is to weave an affiliation of like-minded bands, and then promote the hell out of them. IPS’s current roster claims Elevado, Slushco, Parade, Aviator, El Dorado, Kitty Snyder, Jondonson, Pistolero and Slow Motion Crash. According to Holder, working together works here, too. Over the summer, Slushco and Parade, through ISP, fronted a 200-station radio promotion behind their respective albums. Elevado’s Cain Wrong created a VLOG to create a home for ISP’s expanding music videos and shorts. ISP maintains a presence on MySpace and has begun releasing recordings of its bands with the help of Gavin Fredrick and Stickfigure Distribution. Partnering with another element of Elevado, Justin Sias Holder landed the location next to The Earl. Relying on the cooperation of band members and the oft-abused intern programs at Georgia State and UGA, Holder is now poised to support the music with booking and touring, press releases and EPKs, radio and recording. For Holder, there are no limits to who may participate. “By and large there is so much stuff that in interesting,” Holder explains. “I’m really looking for bands that want to be good.”

And their ideas keep coming. February 3rd will see the debut of an offbeat event conceived by ISP, a “bus drag race” of sorts between Elevado and Divided Like a Saint’s respective buses through obstacle-peppered routes in Cabbagetown and East Atlanta, ending with a show with both bands that night at The Earl. Psyched for what he hopes will be “a hilariously absurd time,” Holder says ISP will promote the event through their VLOG, featuring live-action made-for-YouTube viral videos. Crazy, man.

The ISP recording facility, a.k.a. Weatherproof Recording, reflects the “we can make it happen” sensibility of Holder’s business plan. Overseen by producer Brian Slusher, the digs are not a recording studio in the traditional sense. For instance, it does not include a drum room or an unlimited post-production capability of Flaming Lipsian largess. However, it is immediate. For $20 an hour, any confident combo can track a live performance. ISP has tested its stripped-down resources by recording and producing material from its stable of acts. Releases from Club Awesome, Black Mona Lisa and Pistolero are already planned for early this year.

As a music venue, ISP keeps an irregular schedule of Thursday through Saturday – although the odd weekday show is not unusual. In its capacity as a club, ISP posts a “suggested to the classic cover charge. Holder’s idea is operate an all-ages venue the focuses on exposure and promotion as opposed to beer and liquor sales. Exposure is the maxim, even for the poorest live music fan among crowds in East Atlanta. “If you don’t have the suggested donation,” Holder promises, “we’ll let you in anyway.” In addition to semi-regular appearances of bands in the ISP bullpen, the place offers performances booked through affiliates in D.C., N.Y. and Philadelphia as well as shows traded with other Atlanta sites like Lenny’s. The Drunken Unicorn and The EARL. ISP occasionally pencils in bands from the West Coast as evidenced by recent gigs by Gold Standard Laboratories and Sexytime Explosion. “We book whatever makes the most sense,” Holder explains, “and so far it’s working.”

Although licensed to run a business, Holder’s model is slightly under the not-for-profit range. ISP strictly persists and friends. Funding for this ambitious enterprise has been made possible with the help of the Passive Aggressive Network, Channel Zero among other benefactors. ISP also functions as a store, shilling its band’s merchandise and stuff from Goodnight Records, Stickfigure Distro, Eskimo Kiss Records and Rob’s House. The art gallery is curated by Jason Drakeford. Although one may wonder at the weight of this enterprise, Holder is confident. “The random acts of community are infectious.”

Interested parties are encouraged to visit ISP on the web ISP Home or dial up MySpace


Robi Lyle
Stomp and Stammer
02/02/2007

performer2.jpg

 

Atlanta Public Relations, Atlanta Entertainment PR, Music Promotions, Industrial Strength Promotions, ISP-Music, Atlanta Event & Music Promotions